I forgot the cubed tomatoes, tomato sauce and enough water to cover the vegetables.

Bring to a boil and cook the soup for 30-40 minutes uncovered, until the vegetables are done.

At that point reduce the heat to a low boil and add the creamed corn and tomato paste.

The soup will tend to stick to the bottom of the pot as it thickens with the addition of these two components and must be cooked slowly from this point on for another 15 to 20 minutes, with stirring every few minutes.

There you go, torturing me with that beautiful cornbread again. As much as I'm sure I'd love to eat it the way you do, I can't. I used to love to crumble saltines in my soup. That was Mom's solution when the soup was too hot and we were too impatient to wait for it to cool down.

Here's a rude question. How do you manage not to be fat with all that good cornbread? I saw your picture and you aren't.

You might have inspired me to make some vegetable beef soup later in the week. Our methods are completely different. You are more ordered and organized. I never make it the same way twice.

I know this is off topic, but I can't wait to try your cornbread recipe. I love to cook, I do it often, but cornbread is just something I have zero experience with because my grandmother (mostly her, and her recipe is guarded by Fort Knox I think) and mom have always done that.

It's your soup. The taste will be different, but that's what is nice about cooking. There are an infinate number of variations.

I don't recommend varying too much from the recipe when making bread, unless your name is James Beard or Alton Brown. My success stories when varying bread recipes are not always what I'd want to publically share.

It's down in there somewhere. The amount of beef I use varies, depending on the amount of beef I have. Sometimes we buy stew meat or a roast before we start making this soup and start with that and other times we make it because we have some beef leftovers to use.

Yesterday, I had about a quarter pound of breaded and browned stew meat so that is what went in the pot.

You are correct. This one has no pepper, or onion, or celery. That is the flavor I grew uop with for this soup and what I expect when I eat it.

We make a chicken enchalada soup that would knock your socks off.

If you dined with me and asked for hot sauce or pepper, I'd just get you a bottle or grinder and think nothing of it. I like more salt than the wife (MHNBPF). Because her taste are for less salt than mine, I make it the way I recorded and add salt to mine in the bowl. Honestly, I have friends who receive their plate in a restaurant and salt it before tasting the food. How they know before they taste is beyond me.

Anyhow, the pepper preference works fine for me. Hard to meet all taste expectations.